I’ve always loved this body style and found one localy for $9800. It’s a '96 with 75k miles and the body and interior is very clean. The owner says it runs great and has had no problems with it. They’ve owned it since it was new and it was garage kept ever since.
I really want to get one before they’re all bought up by the hood rats and molested with dub dueces and candy paint. This would be my first domestic, so I know almost nothing about LT1’s and their reliability.
I’m looking for some opinions before I make a mistake. I have a '97 2.2CL 5 speed for a daily driver. The car is in great shape and very reliable, but an automatic would be a nice change.
I’m going to look at it again this week. If everything goes well, my only concern will be… Is this thing going to fit in my garage?
Beautiful cars, I definitely wouldn’t pass up a chance to buy one, a piece of American automotive history for sure.
$9800 doesn’t seem too bad as they have pretty much just increased in value. Even more rare is if it is a DGGM with console shifter, I heard they’re the most rare 96 model.
Two things to read up on, Replacing the OptiSpark, and fixing the window rollers. Two things you’ll need to do sooner or later. Neither are really hard, just time consuming.
Also, before spending that much make sure it’s a real SS and not a clone. Look at the tag on the trunk lid. If it has the code WX3, and the VIN matches the VIN on the dash you should be golden.
So not all the 96’s had the console shifter? This one has it on the column, which made me think it’s not a '96. I read that this was one of the changes for this model year as well as the analog speedometer and tach.
Thanks for the info scoob. I think I’m going to read up on this a little more. The owner has had it up for sale for almost a month, so hopefully he can hang onto it a little longer. If they sell it, I’d be hard pressed to find one in as good of condition.
Optispark is definately a poor design & will probably need replaced sometime in it’s life.
All '95-'96 cars had console shift. Also they had analog guages with a tach. And they were available in two colors other than black (black cherry & green-grey). '94 cars were all black & had digital speedo w/o tach.
$9800 is reasonable. Make sure it is a 5.7L and not a 4.3L V8. They look identical to the untrained eye. All Impy SS’ came with a 5.7L, but alot of these cars have been hammered. I think the engine size is cast into the block on the lower portion near the motor mounts.
These are fun cars to drive & easy to make fast. Even if they are 4000 lbs.
A T56 six speed is a bolt in mod, too.
EDIT: I Was pretty certain '95 & '96 had floor shifters, but the referenced article http://impala.homeip.net/faq/faq.cgi?interior%2Fconsole.html above says only '96 has a console. I know it was not an option, because I test drove one in '96 that had a floor shifter, was a grey - green car and there really was no options available, as they only came one way other than the color.
Blazin si - what are you doing with the CL? How many miles? Color? Leather or cloth?
I’ll probably sell it privately. It’s Primrose (silver) with 151k miles and light grey leather interior.
$9800 is more than I wanted to spend, but the car looks great. Every time I pick up an auto trader, I see a bunch for sale in the $5k - $6k range. Maybe I’ll hold off on this one and save myself some money. Then I’ll just restore things when there’s extra cash.
